GP4: 2023 Helmets 'November' Update

After the Qatari GP, I took a little break from my 2023 helmet set to concentrate on some other projects. So far this year, there hasn't been a crazy amount of special helmets, which has been pretty manageable for me which is great, but I was expecting that to change for the last four races of the year, and, boy, there were quite a lot of them. I had been doing monthly updates and this was meant to have been the October and November update combined, but sorry I've missed it by a few days. Because of the sheer number of helmets, I'm going to release them in two batches. There's no real order to which I'm creating these helmets, but here is what has been done so far. 

Max Verstappen - Qatar GP

Firstly, congratulations to Max and Red Bull on their dominant Championships this season. Dominance brings a bit of inevitability and can be a bit dull at times, but that's no reason not to recognise both team and driver at the absolute top of their game and respect to that. It's official, not only was it record breaking, but it is statistically the most dominant performance from a driver ever in F1. Massive respect, and fully deserved. Sure he didn't win every race, but to be out front at pretty much every race, to wipe the floor with his experienced team-mate the way that he has, and appear so dominant in a close grid (compared to the old days), this is praise-worthy stuff that is not likely to be repeated soon, if at all. Congrats to Max, to Red Bull, to Adrian Newey et al for this incredible effort. 

After winning the Championship at the sprint race, Max was presented with a new World Championship helmet in blue and gold, following the design of his late season helmet. Verstappen did a similar thing last year when he wore a gold helmet celebrate his championship victory and now this one features three stars at the rear of the helmet. Designed once more by KV Designs, the helmet was beautifully painted by JMD Helmets. Max wore the helmet at the Qatar GP which, predictably, he also won. 

Pierre Gasly - Qatar GP

Pierre presented two helmets which he wore during the weekend in Qatar. It's his race helmet that I've decided to recreate. This helmet, designed by Alanoud Al Ghamdi and Shouq Al Mana for Qatar Creates, is inspired by the flora and fauana of the desert, its nomadic people, using textures inspired by the sand and the Qatari flag, Arabic calligraphy and the cultural symbol of the horse. These are all nicely worked into his regular helmet design where Pierre had a competitive weekend, despite being one of the most penalised over track limits in the race. 

GP4: 2023 helmets September Update

It has, in general, been a reasonably quiet season for special helmets, but the last three Grand Prix has, by my count, seen 18 special helmets raced in three Grand Prix. Both Zhou and Tsunoda ran a special helmet at each of the three races. Not only has there been plenty of helmets to keep me busy, but these are some of the more difficult helmets to recreate this season. Here's a quick summary of what's new. 

Italian GP

The three Italian teams (well two based in Italy, and the other sponsored by an Italian car brand) saw all their drivers run new helmets. 

2023 Liam Lawson helmet

Technically, this is not a special, one off just the debut of Liam's proper Alpha Tauri helmet by MDM Designs. The one he raced at the previous race at short notice was his Red Bull testing helmet, but the Alpha Tauri helmet has an all white base rather than a blue one. 

2023 Tsunoda Italian GP helmet

Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has his regular design, by Adrien Paviot, changed to the colours of the Italian flag in much the same was as he did earlier in the year at Miami. I did have to change the arrangement in leaves a little. 

2023 Leclerc Italian GP helmet

Ferrari ran a special livery for the Italian GP, celebrating their successful return to top tier Le Mans racing. To suit, Charles' helmet, by Adrien Paviot, turned Modena yellow which looks great with the car. 

2023 Sainz Italian GP helmet

Carlos' helmet, by Dave Designs, is predominantly black, using the red and yellow of Ferrari in the style of the Spanish flag. The busy dash style remains at the bottom of the helmet to keep a bit of continuity with his regular helmet design. 

2023 Zhou Italian GP helmet

Alfa Romeo also ran a special livery, this time to promote a new road car release, the Alfa 33 Stradale. Zhou's helmet, by KV Designs, has the colours of the Italian flag worked into his regular design, with various homages to Alfa Romeo, including pictures of race winning Alfa Romeos on each side. 

2023 Bottas Italian GP helmet

Another design by Tiffany Cromwell that is simple and fun and is a cartoon version of an original F1 helmet, with tributes to previously successful Alfa Romeo drivers written on the straps. It was nice to recreate this one with varying leathers and stitching effects. 

2023 Verstappen late season helmet

Verstappen has an amended design which he intends to use for the remainder of the season, except for any special liveries. This design is a modernised version of his first ever helmet when he was still karting, which clearly draws inspiration from his father's F1 helmet. Nice work from KV Designs. 

Singapore GP

2023 Tsunoda Singapore GP helmet

Yuki's helmet for the Singapore GP is designed by Wood Eye designs, and features a cat's face on the front and top. A nice, simple and elegant design. 

2023 Norris Singapore GP helmet

Lando continues his trend of running one helmet with heavy Quadrant branding each year. For this year, Quadrant ran a competition for people to design something for each segment of the Q. The helmet is sparkly all over, and all the sponsors are super reflective. The galaxy like swirls took a bit of time to recreate, especially trying to get everything lined up along the seams, but I'm really please with how this looks, particulaly in-game. 

Oscar Piastri also ran a sparkly version of his regular helmet, which is included in the pack, but on the render it doesn't really show up, so I've not included the preview here. 

2023 Magnussen Singapore GP helmet

I really like Kevin's helmets this year, and KV Designs has created this beauty for KMag to run at the Singapore GP. With this being a white helmet with flashes of red, you'd think this is a Japanese version, but then again it would get lost in all the white and red helmets. Anyway, this one really pops in the Haas. 

2023 Zhou Singapore GP helmet

This helmet is inspired by the Chinese tradition of an animal representing their calendar year. This one celebrates the 'Year of the Rabbit', with a kind of Japanese style of graphic with cute Chinese illustrations. The Rabbit ears on the front of the helmet is a nice touch. This helmet took me a while to recreate, with a mix of hand-drawn elements blended with taking parts from photos. 

2023 Perez Singapore GP helmet

Last, but not least for the Singapore GP, is Checo's helmet, by MDM Designs, that celebrates his 250th GP in Formula 1. The helmet incorporates various pictures from his race victories in the last couple of years. Thankfully the photos were quite easy for me to find and was reasonably straight forward to incorporate into his design, which is heavily Mexican flag influenced with a hint of gold. Sadly for Sergio, it was really a race to forget. 

Japanese GP

2023 Tsunoda Japanese GP helmet

For his home race, Tsunoda is wearing another Wood Eye designed helmet. This is quite a plain helmet really, which suits me nicely. I'm grateful for translation tools these days to help me with some of the Japanese text. The 22 on the back was a bit of a pain, it's the most stretched part of the helmet and has three seams to line up. It took a lot of trial and error but I'm happy with the result. 

2023 Zhou Japanese GP helmet

Zhou is the other driver to run his third consecutive special helmet, this one designed by Hiroshi Fukiwara to promote his Fragment Design brand. Thankfully this didn't take long to make and I like the finished design. 

2023 Ocon Japanese GP helmet

Estie Bestie has a Japanese inspired helmet with the Suzuka track map and corners worked into the design. This is a nicely done helmet by KV Designs, and I really enjoyed making this one. 

2023 Hamilton Japanese GP helmet

Hamilton's promotion pictures for his helmet were quite striking, with this helmet designed by Hajime Sorayama, however when it hit the track, it was quite a simple chrome design. Even in the garage, the visor seem to have a covering with the yellow beam from the visor and the chromed silver and gold knobs on the side. This fits Hijime's artwork with a futuristic looking robotic humanoid, and Hamilton has a line of merch featuring Sorayama's designs. 

2023 Verstappen Japanese GP

Max's debut F1 session was at Suzuka, and last year he clinched the Driver's Championship, amid some confusion, also at this track. Like many drivers, his helmet is inspired by the Japanese flag and it's simplicity. 

2023 Stroll Japanese GP helmet

Mark Antar has designed another nice helmet for Stroll to wear for the Japanese GP, with a hand drawn style that accentuates the contours of the Stilo helmet. The rear features a Japanese artistic style with the waves and the rising sun. 

2023 Alonso Japanese GP helmet

And finally, we have Fernando's special helmet, designed by MDM Designs and painted by Jens Munser. Alonso has spoken many times in the past about the way of the Samurai, taking its inspiration into his approach for racing. 

Phew, that's been a busy month of creating and releasing GP4 content for you. The pack is rapidly approaching 100 helmets, and with the races to come, I think I'll be busy creating more designs for the remainder of the season. 

Huge thanks to Nick for the renders, they look great and it also saves me so much time. Thanks also to Jvinu for his helmet shapes and templates and for allowing me to amend them. 

As always, all the helmet previews can be seen here, and it's also where you will find the latest download link: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/gp4-2023-helmets.html

And all 2023 content for GP4 is regularly updated here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/gp4-2023-download-sources.html

GP4: 2022 Helmets pack complete!

Here it is, the final update to the 2022 pack. 

As is now customary, over half of the grid raced with special helmet designs in Abu Dhabi, especially those who are not returning to the grid next season. I've created 13 more helmets. For one last time this season, let's get into it.

Alex Albon  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Alex Albon has replaced the white regions of his standard helmet with a chrome effect. The helmet itself is a simplified version of his standard helmet. In most pictures, there was a slight red tinge to the chromed reflections, so I've added a bit of red hint to some areas. The helmet also features Latifi's name, in honour of his last race. 

Fernando Alonso 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

It was a bit of a surprise that old rival Fernando Alonso was so sentinmental at Vettel's last race. He decided against fighting him in the first few laps of the race whilst also running this tribute helmet. He will replace the German at Aston Martin next year. The helmet is still largely title sponsor BWT influenced, but the German flag strip across the front is simple and iconic. 

Pierre Gasly  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Pierre Gasly is not only ending his time with Alpha Tauri but also the Red Bull family, and so this helmet is half his old Red Bull helmet and this season's Alpha Tauri helmet. There are messages of thanks in various languages. 

Lewis Hamilton 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Lewis Hamilton ran another variation of his helmet with the rainbow flag at the Abu Dhabi GP. 

Nicholas Latifi 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

It's not really a new helmet for Latifi, but with a message to Seb, and the new Williams visor since Interlagos made this a quick job. 

Charles Leclerc 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Charles Leclerc has also gone chrome, with silver and red chrome. But this helmet is a tribute to all those working at Gestione Sportiva and trackside, with all their names printed on the Italian flag across the front, top and rear of his helmet. There were some angles where the names weren't clear in the pictures and blueprints I had, so there may be some alternative names on there. 

Kevin Magnussen  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Kevin Magnussen has a lightly altered helmet from the one that he ran since the Monaco GP, but for the Abu Dhabi GP, he's also gone with a full on chrome effect, and the K on the side of his helmet is now white instead of red. 

Lando Norris 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Lando also ran a new lid with a glittery green/purplish tones. Not much was made of the helmet online that I could see, but it looks nice anyway. 

Daniel Ricciardo 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Daniel Ricciardo was another driver who would not have a full time drive on the 2023 grid. His final helmet with McLaren is given to sponsor OKX and has been cyberpunked. The livery is based on his standard livery by Ornamental Conifer, and MDM Designs has done a lovely job putting all that together in this shiny number. 

Carlos Sainz 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

As last year, Carlos ran a glittery version of his standard helmet at the Yas Marina circuit. 

Mick Schumacher 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Mick Schumacher doesn't currently have another F1 drive lined up for 2023, but instead of running his own helmet design, he dedicate his final helmet to Seb's design, which Seb stole off Mick's dad to be fair. Mick's regular design is embossed into the helmet, similar to his Japanese helmet. He'll be missed.

Sebastian Vettel  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Seb Vettel went from pantomine villian at Red Bull, to a bit of an embarressing flop at Ferrari towards the end, to being the most likeable, kind and mature driver on the grid in his Aston Martin days. Everyone was overflowing with their tributes to his last drive and his helmet was about giving back. Dubbed 'the Final Lap', he let fans buy places on his helmet, with the proceeds going to environmental projects. A great driver leaves the grid. 

Zhou Guanyu 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Whilst it was probably fitting to leave Seb's helmet last, I've decided to mostly stick to alphabetical order for this post, so that leaves Zhou's helmet, which is actually the final helmet I painted for the 2022 season and so it's fitting it belongs here. Inspired by vintage Chinese ornamental floral patterns, the patterns already exist on his standard helmet at the top and around the bottom, but this helmet extends that design all the way around the helmet. Very nice design from KV Designs. The pattern was painted from scratch, so it took a bit of time, but I like the result.

GP4: 2022 Alfa Romeo C42

As we begin the final weekend of the 2022 season today, I'm delighted to be able to have finished another 2022 car and share it with you GP4 fans. This is the Alfa Romeo C42. 

2022 Alfa Romeo C42 by Fongu

The car is built from the Hinwil based of the team formerly known as Sauber and is powered by the Ferrari power train. The competitiveness dropped of by mid-season, with Zhou suffering a massive crash in Silverstone, landing sideways between two barriers. Thankfully he was extracted and not seriously injured. Going into the final race of the season, they lead the battle for 6th in the Constructors’ Championship. 

There are so many great sources around today to help me model the cars accurately compared to when I first started making cars for GP4, and I've tried to keep these cars as simple as I can so that it runs well on lower end machines. On that, I'm grateful once more to Carl_gpgames for making lods for this car. Even things like tiny logos are much easier to find nowadays, which all helds speed up production of these cars.

This car comes with two special liveries as seen in Baku and Monza. 

2022 Alfa Romeo C42 Azerbaijan GP livery by Fongu

This livery, run at the Azerbaijan GP was to celebrate the launch of the Tonale road car, an electic SUV. The added green is to make the car into a giant Italian flag with the hue of colours the colours tweak to match the green in the Montreal Tonale launch as well as a nod to it's green initiatives going forward and the deeper Alfa red. The Tonale has distinctive headlights, forming a 'UUU' shape and that's the reason that's on the livery in white on the engine cover and darker green on the sidepods. 

2022 Alfa Romeo C42 Italian GP livery by Fongu

Alfa Romeo, since it linked up with Sauber, has been using various old Alfa Romeo logos in it's time in F1. Just search for Alfa Romeo logo history and you'll see how the emblem has evolved over the years. The nose and engine cover logo on the standard livery is based on the 1922 font. In the Italian GP at Monza, the nose logo was replaced with the logo used in the 1940s and 50s. 

On the right side engine cover only, they have replaced the text with their emblem. Alfa Romeo, originally founded in Milan, has many nods to its history.  The cross is St. George's cross, associated with medieval Milanese soldiers during the time of the crusades, clearly backing the 'Christian' side. What I didn't know until I did a bit of research was that the serpent, Biscione, is eating a guy, the emblem being associated with the Visconti family of the 11th Century and linked with Milan. The guy getting eaten is in relation once more to the crusades, presumably a muslim, but it's still a bit open for debate. The crown relates to the family becoming Dukes in the 15th Century. The serpent itself is new, but clearly inspired from the past, so I had to paint it from scratch. It's a fascinating history if you wanted to read more into it. 

Thanks once more to Carl_gpgames for the screenshots and all that's left to do is share the pack with you, enjoy. 

GP4: 2022 US GP Helmets (part 2)

It was really no surprise that there were so many speical helmets at the US GP in Austin, Texas, with 10 drivers that I could find running a different lid. I've already released two, and now I'm pleased to show you the rest of them that I have recreated.

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc 2022 US GP helmet

Leclerc has a barbeque themed helmet, that's similar to his Monaco GP helmet with the red top and white bottom. 

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo 2022 US GP helmet

Ricciardo's helmet is inspired by Will Ferrell's film, 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'. A nice special design, by JMD helmets. 

Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon 2022 US GP helmet

Esteban Ocon came with this simple yet instantly recognisable Spiderman design. According to Esteban, the US is the land of superheroes. It got better when Alpine recreated the Spiderman meme with the helmet.

Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll 2022 US GP helmet

Lance Stroll wore this leather saddle based design, with the Aston Martin wings having the appearance of leather stitched onto a camel leather base. I like how the colour of the stitching highlights the strip along the top. A nice fun helmet. 

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel 2022 US GP helmet

Well, this helmet by MDM Designs wins the busiest helmet of the year, with a hippy based vibe to it, and peace and love worked in seamlessly in glittery gold. As you can imagine, this took a while to make, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

Nicholas Latifi

Nicholas Latifi 2022 US GP helmet

Most blogs and helmet spotters missed Goatifi's special helmet, and to be fair, I only spotted it by accident. It's an amalgamation of his previous two special helmets, the maple syrup one he ran in Montreal and the red version of his helmet he's run since Hungary. 

Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu 2022 US GP helmet

Zhou's helmet is denim jeans inspired, complete with leather belt and buckle. I really enjoyed making this one, doing the stitching and leather effects to go on top of the denim base. A nice design from KV helmet designs.

Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher 2022 US GP helmet

Mick Schumacher created this helmet inspired by his family's ranch with images of his sister, Gina-Marie as a surprise for her. She's an accomplished reining horse rider with several international accomplishments to her name. The images were put onto a sunset backdrop, with the front and top showing a clear night sky, like the ones you see in parts of Texas that are awe inspiring. 

Special thanks to 32bobo32 for helping me find the pictures of Gina-Marie. It's a shame the wing shape has changed and that's exactly where Gina's picture is, but I've tried to make it seamless enough.

As ever, these helmets are painted on Jvinu's templates and shapes, and are ACSPRH compatible.

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GP4: 2022 Singapore GP helmets (part 2)

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo 2022 Italian GP helmet

Danny Ric kepty this special helmet back until race day. Inspired by Moto GP legend, Valentino Rossi's special helmet from Mugello 2008, this features 'the Doctor's helmet design complete with Ricciardo's face on the top. To be honest, it was impossible to get the seam perfect, but I've got it as close as I could. Because the real helmet was quite reflective, it was hard to find good materials to recreate the face, especially as I needed several angles.

Daniel Ricciardo 2022 Singapore GP helmet

As last year, Daniel Ricciardo ran a glittery version of his standard helmet, painted this time be Jens Munser Designs. Thankfully it made it a reasonably easy update to do. 

Lando Norris

Lando Norris 2022 Singapore GP helmet

Lando is allowed one Quadrant helmet design a season, and this is the result, a halo inspired helmet designed by MDM and beautfully painted by JMD. Thankfully I was able to find good sources to recreate this helmet. It's not 100% perfect, but I'm happy with the result for such a complicated design.

Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu 2022 Singapore GP helmet

This helmet, designed by KV designs was apparently inspired by Zhou's tweet earlier this year, presumably about him loving bubble tea. The helmet has a very distinctive pink/purple base colour and topographical lines in glittery purple. Spewed all over are various clipart illustrations of bubble tea. 

Thanks again to Jvinu's helmets and templates, all four helmets have been added to the season pack. 

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